Across Indiana
The Vanishing Hitchhiker | Classic Across Indiana
Clip | 2m 55sVideo has Closed Captions
Across Indiana re-creates "The Vanishing Hitchhiker", a Hoosier urban legend.
On a lonely country road outside of Indianapolis, a mysterious hitchhiker roams the countryside. Of course, this is one of those tales that is sworn to be true but has no basis in fact. Urban legends about hitchhikers are numerous, but this one is ours. The Across Indiana team set out to recreate this bone-chilling Hoosier tale in the show's first season circa 1990.
Across Indiana is a local public television program presented by WFYI
Across Indiana
The Vanishing Hitchhiker | Classic Across Indiana
Clip | 2m 55sVideo has Closed Captions
On a lonely country road outside of Indianapolis, a mysterious hitchhiker roams the countryside. Of course, this is one of those tales that is sworn to be true but has no basis in fact. Urban legends about hitchhikers are numerous, but this one is ours. The Across Indiana team set out to recreate this bone-chilling Hoosier tale in the show's first season circa 1990.
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship(bright music) (ominous music) (person cackling) (wind whooshing) - [Kathy] When I was at the store today, someone told me about a friend of theirs who was driving home one day on a lonely country road near here.
(upbeat classical music) He stopped for a girl walking alongside the road and asked if she needed a ride.
- Hi, want a ride?
- [Kathy] She didn't say anything.
She just got into the backseat.
She gave him a nearby address and said she was trying to get home.
That's all she said except that she was cold, so he gave her his sweater.
(mysterious music) As she sat in the backseat, he could see her in the rear view mirror.
She seemed a million miles way as she sat looking out the window.
(mysterious music continues) When he looked back up, she was gone.
(ominous music) He searched the car, but she wasn't there, nor could he see her if she had jumped out of the car.
She had vanished completely.
(ominous music continues) He drove to the address she'd given him and found it was a cemetery.
(ominous music continues) On a nearby grave was his sweater, draped over the headstone.
(ominous music continues) Later, he learned the girl had been hitchhiking home from college when she was struck and killed by a hit and run driver who was never caught.
Ever since then, other motorists have seen her walking alongside the road, trying to get home, but never able to.
(light music) - [Narrator] For more "Across Indiana" stories, go to WFYI.org/AcrossIndiana.
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Historian Rea Ferguson uncovers the hidden Black history of Indiana's rural communities. (5m 12s)
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The Indiana Medical History Museum holds many oddities from a time long gone. (4m 13s)
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Berne, Indiana, was established by Swiss immigrants in the 1800s. (4m 17s)
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In 1994, "Across Indiana" discovered the Twelve Mile Christmas Pageant. (5m 29s)
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Artist Leigh Dunnington Jones | Classic Across Indiana
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Artist Leigh Dunnington Jones makes unusual Christmas sculptures from unwanted materials. (5m 1s)
Now PlayingThe Vanishing Hitchhiker | Classic Across Indiana
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Across Indiana re-creates "The Vanishing Hitchhiker", a Hoosier urban legend. (2m 55s)
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Check out Pumpkin Fantasyland, one of the country's biggest pumpkin farms. (6m 5s)
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Haunted Indiana | Classic Across Indiana
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Across Indiana hosts a sampling of Hoosier Halloween stories from around the state. (3m 37s)
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The Indiana War Memorial | Classic Across Indiana
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Across Indiana is a local public television program presented by WFYI